There is No National Sales Executive Association: Lies, Misinformation and Sales Statistics

As someone who has started his career in sales, been a sales manager and leader, this graphic drives me crazy for a number of reasons.

These purported statistics are completely made up! They are essentially just lies. There is no National Sales Executive Association, nor did they publish any study. Or perhaps they simply removed themselves from Google’s index. There was some chatter on various blogs that these statistics might be from the National Association of Sales Professionals, but I couldn’t find it there either.

Secondly, these are ridiculous claims. Let’s parse a few of them:

48% of salespeople don’t follow up with a prospect once

Is this saying, of all the salespeople out there almost half of them never, ever followed-up with a prospect no matter what? Or does it mean that 48% of salespeople haven’t followed-up with a prospect at one time? I can guarantee that the second interpretation is true, and it’s also a necessary fact. Despite the best efforts of the marketing team, some leads and prospects are not worth following up with. We call that qualification, and the best salespeople are very discerning on how and when they spend their time.

2% of sales are made on the first contact

I can think of a big company, Staples, that has salespeople who take calls from clients buying office supplies who make many, many sales on the first contact. Are we including them in this statistic? Or Groupon? In the time-share business, as I learned from the great movie Queen of Versailles, over 90% of their sales come on the first contact. I could go on with more examples, but you get the idea.

If the point of these ‘statistics’ is to illustrate that salespeople should build relationships with their prospects, then I’m all for that, but let’s not pass them off as truth when they could basically be considered lies.

(Here is a sales statistic I found true in my own life: 100% of salespeople want to close more deals, and Spiro’s sales automation CRM can help.)